Slowly across from Yosemite to San Fransisco

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We had a plan to stop at a campsite lower in the national forest beside a river and go swimming. This did not work as planned, because all access to campsites and that part of the forest had been stopped following a massive forest fire. Drove through blackened and parched looking forest, and scoured the map for likely swimming spots, as we were hot and had our hearts set on this swim. We passed a reservoir which looked half empty due to the drought, and then several miles on made a diversion up a side road to a lovely little lake where we got a nice cool swim. It wasnt the sort of place to camp, so after swimming we set off again looking for a camping ground.

We drove miles and miles across parched yellow grassland with a few cattle huddled here and there around a source of water, then miles through irrigated rows of orange trees. Finally just as it was about to get dark we found a funny little campsite near a river (unfortunately not one suited to swimming!) in a state recreation area. It was a bit of an oasis in the arid lands surrounding it. There were the usual crickets, and also loads of birds in the reeds and trees nearby. There were several mexican and chinese people fishing off piers beside the river and little lake there. The really odd thi g was massive clumps of a sort of waterlilly/weed floating down the river. The lake was full of it. One of the chinese women fishi g told us that the weed had almost completely covered this lake in the last 2 years.

Next day we drove to the Napa valley, across the wide Sacremento ship canal and past a massive wind farm, where we visited a geyser called 'old faithfull' si ilar to the more famous one in yellowstone. It shoots up to about 30 foot every 30 or 40 minutes. The farm owner there has provided shaded seating where you sit and wait for the spectacle...very strange. Nappa valley was really lush and beautiful, with vines and nice houses and gardens. Next we visited a petrified forest near Napa valley. This was also interesting....a volcanic explosion had felled the redwood trees and coated them in ash over 3 million years ago. The minerals from the ash later dissolved in water and leached into the tress preserving them so they look like a cross between a stone and a fossil. (makes me think of the white witch in Narnia). It was tricky finding a nice campsite open in Napa valley. We ended up in an rv park where Fred and the swiss guy in the next van enjoyed drinking the local wine.

This morning watched a group of prisoners in orange suits fell a dead tree on the camping lot, then drove round the bay and over the Golden Gate bridge into San Fransisco. Drove through onto the Oakland bridge and turned off in the middle onto Treasure Island, where we are staying in Airbnb. Treasure Island is a strange ex military base built on reclaimed land in the middle of the bay. It is soon to be totally redeveloped. It seems a bit windy....but the really good thi g about it is the amazing views all round the bay from this small island. We ended the day watching the sunset behind Alcatraz, with the Go.den Gate bridge and San Fransisco skyline to the left side of the view. The sea was choppy, and even we were not tempted to have a dip. We could understand how hard it would be to escape from Alcatraz by swimming.

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